Johannesburg, Dec 11: Anti-apartheid champion and former South African president Nelson Mandela has been suffering from a recurrence of a previous lung infection and was receiving appropriate treatment, the government said Tuesday.
Mandela, 94, remains at the 1 Military Hospital in Pretoria, where he was admitted Saturday for medical tests, Xinhua reported.
In response to public concern, the Presidency said there was no cause for alarm over his health.
"Doctors have concluded the tests, and these have revealed a recurrence of a previous lung infection, for which Madiba is receiving appropriate treatment and he is responding to the treatment," the Presidency said in a statement.
"As said before, former president Mandela will receive medical attention from time to time which is consistent with his age," the Presidency said.
This is not the first time Mandela has been hospitalised in the past two years. In January 2011, he was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for an acute respiratory infection. In February this year, he spent a night at a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complain.
Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years during the apartheid, was elected the country's first black president in 1994.
